Trump's firing of US climate scientists sends ripples across Asia

Many countries rely on US agency's data to predict, prepare for extreme climate events

- Rohini Mohan and Wahyudi Soeriaatmadja

In a research laboratory in one of India's top technical institutes in the western state of Gujarat, civil and computer science engineer Udit Bhatia is growing anxious as political events unfolding 12,400km away put his work in jeopardy.

The Trump administration's ongoing budget cuts in US federal agencies are threatening to disrupt worldwide weather and ocean measurements that are vital to global governments and agencies in forecasting and early warnings, and disaster resilience research done by the likes of Dr Bhatia.

Dr Bhatia studies how climate variability impacts cities, urban infrastructure and transportation systems. His team of 22 at the Centre for Sustainable Development at the Indian Institute of Technology, Gandhinagar, has advised municipalities of Bhavnagar and Surat cities as well as government agencies including the Indian railways on how to manage and recover from natural disasters.

Most of the critical datasets that Dr Bhatia's laboratory relies on are generated by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), America's primary oceanic science and meteorological body.

The NOAA's National Centres for Environmental Information monitor and archive data on temperature, precipitation, wind speeds and humidity levels every month from over 130 observing platforms across the globe, including those in the Indian Ocean that are relevant for Dr Bhatia.

Such crucial climate information may soon become inaccessible or less accurate, amid major staff and budget cuts at the NOAA. In late February, more than 1,000 of its employees were laid off in US President Donald Trump's mass overhaul and downsizing of the federal government, to save "wasted" taxpayer money.

Any unavailability of this data will reduce the "ability to track rapid changes in the ocean that often precede extreme weather", said Dr Roxy Mathew Koll, a climate scientist at the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology in Pune, India.